


My Affection, Well It Comes And Goes

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Play Along [31]
Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Gen, band au, musician au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-11
Updated: 2016-08-11
Packaged: 2018-08-08 05:12:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7744624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the comment_fic prompt: "Any, any(/any), I Have Torn You from My Heart"</p><p>Rodney and John have moved on from each other, or so they say.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Affection, Well It Comes And Goes

Cam didn’t know what to think when he stepped into the studio and saw Rodney there.  
  
“But I really do think the piano sounds more stark,” Vala was insisting as she followed Cam into the room. “And then Grace comes in with the drums and Hailey with the the heavy chords for the chorus - it’ll be great. End with the piano, too, and - oh! Hello, Rodney. Fancy seeing you here.”  
  
Rodney was sitting at the piano, staring at a scan of the piano riff Cam had scribbled down at Vala’s behest over a bottle of merlot the night before. He blinked tiredly when he saw them, and Cam realized he looked...pretty horrible. Pale. Shadows around his eyes. Exhausted.  
  
“Hey man.” Cam smiled at him tentatively. “How are you doing?”  
  
“I’m fine,” Rodney said stiffly. “Hello Mitchell, Vala.” He nodded at both of them.  
  
Grace, Hailey, and Amelia tumbled into the room after them, tussling over Amelia’s phone because the other two wanted to see the latest text message from Ronon.  
  
Vala cast Cam a look, and he shrugged helplessly, so she went to settle on one of the stools and check her guitar.  
  
Cam went to check the settings on his mic absently - he was still a bit of a control freak like that - and he offered Rodney another smile. “Hey, I’m sorry about your parents.”  
  
Rodney snorted. “Don’t be. I’m not.”  
  
Vala’s eyes went wide. Hailey, Grace, and Amelia settled down, scooted over to their instruments. The producer, Hank, stepped into the room on the other side of the partition and leaned over to speak to the engineer.  
  
Cam cleared his throat. “How’s John?”  
  
Rodney whipped around to look at him. “You mean you don’t know?”  
  
“He hasn’t spoken to me since he left.” It had hurt, being cut off from John, not because he was in love with John, but because John was his friend, and Cam had thought he was trustworthy.  
  
Rodney looked perplexed. “But you and he - you two always -”  
  
It was Cam’s turn to be confused. “You mean you and he aren’t -?”  
  
“No. I moved in with Jeannie, to help take care of her and prepare for when the baby comes,” Rodney said. “I haven’t spoken to John since - since the band officially broke up. Since we signed the papers.”  
  
Cam knew Jeannie was Rodney’s sister. Ronon had given Amelia scant details. Jeannie McKay had lost all but one member of her family in a single fatal car crash - her parents, and the father of her child. Now all she had left was Rodney. “But I thought John -”  
  
“Thought John what?” Rodney asked.  
  
“I thought he was going to take a chance on you.” Cam could still remember that moment after the last concert, when they were backstage. He’d understood that look in John’s eyes, that peace, that resolution, that determination. He was going to put his heart on the line for Rodney, for real this time.  
  
“No. He never said a word to me. I mean, he reached out for the funeral, of course, the entire band did.”  
  
“I figure if anyone would understand what you were going through, it’d be John,” Cam said softly.  
  
Rodney snorted. “No. John’s mother loved him, doted on him. It’s a totally different situation. And I don’t know what you’re talking about, John taking a chance on me. He’d made it perfectly clear that he’d moved on from me. And I’ve moved on from him - from all of them.” He settled his hands on the piano keys. “Now, don’t you have a song to record?”

Cam had no doubt that John loved Rodney, but after five hours in the studio with the guy, he was starting to wonder why, because the man was a control freak, was demanding, was insulting. But, admittedly, pretty damn good at his job. He was technically only a session musician, but during his squabble with the sound engineer he ended up being right about changing the levels on Hailey’s mic for harmonies on the chorus. And his production suggestions were good ones, good enough that Vala actually sided with him, and Hank, who was mostly there to make sure they didn’t make awful production decisions, kicked back with a cup of coffee and the sports section of the newspaper and let Vala and Rodney have at it.  
  
The song, when it was finished, was just how Cam imagined it in his head, and he could see where John might have been in love with Rodney. Didn’t mean the guy was irritating as hell. Didn’t mean that Cam didn’t feel bad for just how tired Rodney looked.  
  
So when Rodney ducked out of the studio for the tenth time to answer a call from his sister - who Cam knew was pregnant, and who had just lost the father of the baby in the same accident that killed Rodney’s parents - Cam scooped up his phone and finally sent a text message to John.  
  
_Hey, whatever happened with you and Rodney?_  
  
There was a long pause before the reply, and belatedly Cam realized that wherever John was, it was probably hideously late, but Cam’s phone buzzed.  
  
_Nothing. After he went to take care of Jeannie, he moved, and he stopped talking to all of us, Jennifer included._  
  
_Did you tell him you were still in love with him?_  
  
_Yes, but he never answered me, and he’s always put Jeannie first, and I understand that._  
  
_Hey, are *you* doing okay?_  
  
_I’m doing better._  
  
Cam glanced at the window, where Rodney had his head down and was pacing back and forth while he talked, and wondered what John’s worse must have been like. And he wondered if Rodney had loved John back.  
  
After all, Rodney said he’d moved on from John.


End file.
